Health care system should focus on easing patients' lives

4:53 AM,
Jul. 21, 2013

Dr. Bill Frist

Written by

Dr. Bill Frist, Dr. John Shuster and Dr. Andrew Lasher

Over the course of the past century, advances in public health and medical care have led to improvements in life expectancy that our ancestors would not have been able to imagine. Average life expectancy for Americans born in 2013 is approaching 80 years. While we now live longer and typically spend most of these years in good health, many live with advanced and complicated illnesses. Health problems that once caused death are now controllable as chronic conditions. With these chronic conditions comes the risk of chronic illness and chronic symptoms.